Sometimes, you tire of guns, zombies, and sequels; sometimes, you want to lead a bunch of tiny creatures and rhythmically march them into combat, letting the waves of confusion wash over you. That’s what Ratatan is here to do.
It’s the spiritual successor to Japan Studio and Pyramid’s beloved Patapon rhythmic action series. However, you don’t control Patapons, anymore, but Ratatans – which are completely different. These animal(ish) characters bark button-timing orders to their little squad of Cobun characters, who can launch attacks, assemble around the character you control, evade attacks and more. Inputting command sequences promptly also charges up the "Fever" bar, improving the effectiveness of those actions as well.
I haven’t played the Patapon series, which stretched to three (!) games on the PSP, in years, and while the mechanics are similar, Ratatan is more elaborate, evolved and customizable. At its core, though, it’s the same mechanic that demands you maintain the rhythmic input of commands and avoid attacks. It sounds simple enough, but corralling your Cobuns to follow you into battle and balance special attacks with avoiding damage felt like the gaming equivalent of patting your head and rubbing your stomach. Also, it’s 2025, so it’s a roguelike flavor of rhythmic action. Of course.
You can select between several different animals-with-weapons-and-one-eye, and each comes with a different load-out of Cobun warriors. Some are melee fighters, while others are ranged attackers. You can also buy (or craft) more powerful weapons for each Cobun, adding to the sense of progression. I think that’s needed, as Ratatan is a roguelike take on the Patapons that came before it. You’ll dive into a portal and battle multiple waves of enemies, often picking up buffs or treasure at the end of each wave.
Each run is then typically capped off with a boss fight, either against a smarter, smaller enemy (and its underlings) or a more monstrous threat. During my demo, I was mostly getting beaten by a giant hermit crab, despite having picked up a very useful freezing attack buff during that run. I had to learn that lesson: You can pick up all the buffs you want, but you’ll still need to nail the rhythm of attack and defense, while simultaneously keeping an eye on enemy attacks and the placement of both your character and your adorable Cobun fighters. (Ratatan’s character designs are inspired by Nelnal, best known for their work on Pokémon and Deltarune.)
Further fight dynamics include a jump move and guard move that combines the Ratatan and Cobun movements to avoid game-ending damage. Fortunately, the early parts of the game didn’t demand mastery of these.
There’s an early Ratatan demo still available to play on Steam, but the build available at SGF 2025 seems much closer to a finished release. I was able to explore the game’s hub world, filled with shops for upgrades, crafting and organizing your Ratatans’ band of Cobun warriors. These parts felt a little confusing when served alongside the starting levels of the game, but should add longevity and interest when folded into the whole game.
Ratatan will launch later this year on PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/ratatan-demands-your-attention-rhythmically-160048067.html?src=rss
For about 15 years, big-budget Nintendo games cost $60. In fact, that was the standard game price across the industry.
Meanwhile, Nintendo's consoles are generally cheaper than most competing gaming systems, such as the Xbox and the PlayStation. Its consoles have never cost more than $300 — until now.
At $450, the Switch 2 is Nintendo's priciest console. Mario Kart World is priced at $80 — the most expensive first-party title Nintendo has ever released. Some fans are outraged by the price increase. But some industry analysts say a price hike was overdue, considering the rising costs of game development and inflation, among other factors.
So why is Nintendo suddenly so expensive? And what does an $80 game mean for Nintendo and the entire video game industry?
It's early June, which means it's time for a ton of video game events! Rising from the ashes of E3, Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest is now the premium gaming event of the year, just inching ahead of… Geoff Keighley's Game Awards in December. Unlike the show it replaced, Summer Game Fest is an egalitarian affair, spotlighting games from AAA developers and small indies across a diverse set of livestreams. SGF 2025 includes 15 individual events running from June 3-9 — you can find the full Summer Game Fest 2025 schedule here — and we're smack dab in the middle of that programming right now.
We're covering SGF 2025 with a small team on the ground in LA and a far larger group of writers tuning in remotely to the various livestreams. Expect game previews, interviews and reactions to arrive over the coming days (the show's in-person component runs from Saturday-Monday), and a boatload of new trailers and release date announcements in between.
Through it all, we're collating the biggest announcements right here, with links out to more in-depth coverage where we have it, in chronological order.
Tuesday, June 3
State of Unreal: The Witcher IV and Fortnite AI
Epic hitched its wagon to SGF this year, aligning its annual developer Unreal Fest conference, which last took place in the fall of 2024, with the consumer event. The conference was held in Orlando, Florida, from June 2-5, with well over a hundred developer sessions focused on Unreal Engine. The highlight was State of Unreal, which was the first event on the official Summer Game Fest schedule. Amid a bunch of very cool tech demos and announcements, we got some meaningful updates on Epic's own Fortnite and CD PROJEKT RED's upcoming The Witcher IV.
The Witcher IV was first unveiled at The Game Awards last year, and we've heard very little about it since. At State of Unreal, we got a tech demo for Unreal Engine 5.6, played in real time on a base PS5. The roughly 10-minute slot featured a mix of gameplay and cinematics, and showed off a detailed, bustling world. Perhaps the technical highlight was Nanite Foliage, an extension of UE5's Nanite system for geometry that renders foliage without the level of detail pop-in that is perhaps the most widespread graphical aberration still plaguing games today. On the game side, we saw a town filled with hundreds of NPCs going about their business. The town itself wasn't quite on the scale of The Witcher III's Novigrad City, but nonetheless felt alive in a way beyond anything the last game achieved.
It's fair to say that Fortnite's moment in the spotlight was… less impressive. Hot on the heels of smooshing a profane Darth Vader AI into the game, Epic announced that creators will be able to roll their own AI NPCs into the game later this year.
Wednesday, June 4
PlayStation State of Play: Marvel Tōkon, Silent Hill f and the return of Lumines
Another company getting a headstart on proceedings was Sony, who threw its third State of Play of the year onto the Summer Game Fest schedule a couple days ahead of the opening night event. It was a packed stream by Sony's standards, with over 20 games and even a surprise hardware announcement.
The most time was given to Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, a new PlayStation Studios tag fighter that fuses Marvel Superheroes with anime visuals. It's also 4 versus 4, which is wild. It's being developed by Arc System Works, the team perhaps best known for the Guilty Gear series. It's coming to PS5 and PC in 2026. Not-so-coincidentally, Sony also announced Project Defiant, a wireless fight stick that'll support PS5 and PC and arrive in… 2026.
Elsewhere, we got a parade of release dates, with concrete dates for Sword of the Sea(August 19) Baby Steps(September 8) and Silent Hill f (September 25). We also got confirmation of that Final Fantasy Tactics remaster (coming September 30), an an all-new... let's call it aspirational "2026" date for Pragmata, which, if you're keeping score, was advertised alongside the launch of the PS5. Great going, Capcom!
Rounding out the show was a bunch of smaller announcements. We heard about a new Nioh game, Nioh 3, coming in 2026; Suda51's new weirdness Romeo is a Dead Man; and Lumines Arise, a long-awaited return to the Lumines series from the developer behind Tetris Effect.
Thursday, June 5
Diddly squat
There were absolutely no Summer Game Fest events scheduled on Thursday. We assume that's out of respect for antipodean trees, as June 5 was Arbor Day in New Zealand. (It's probably because everyone was playing Nintendo Switch 2.)
Friday, June 6
Summer Game Fest Live: Resident Evil Requiem, Stranger Than Heaven and sequels abound
It's fair to say that previous Summer Game Fest opening night streams have been… whelming at best. This year's showing was certainly an improvement, not least because there were exponentially fewer mobile game and MMO ads littering the presentation. Yes, folks tracking Gabe Newell's yacht were disappointed that Half-Life 3 didn't show up, and the Silksong crowd remains sad, alone and unloved, but there were nonetheless some huge announcements.
Perhaps the biggest of all was the "ninth" (Zero and Code Veronica erasure is real) Resident Evil game. Resident Evil Requiem is said to be a tonal shift compared to the last game, Resident Evil Village. Here's hoping it reinvigorates the series in the same way Resident Evil VII did following the disappointing 6.
We also heard more from Sega studio Ryu Ga Gotoku about Project Century, which seems to be a 1943 take on the Yakuza series. It's now called Stranger Than Heaven, and there's a (literally) jazzy new trailer for your consideration.
Outside of those big swings, there were sequels to a bunch of mid-sized games, like Atomic Heart, Code Vein and Mortal Shell, and a spiritual sequel of sorts: Scott Pilgrim EX, a beat-em-up that takes the baton from the 2010 Ubisoft brawler Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game.
There were countless other announcements at the show, including:
Day of the Devs: Snap & Grab, Blighted and Escape Academy II
As always, the kickoff show was followed by a Day of the Devs stream, which focused on smaller projects and indie games. You can watch the full stream here.
Escape Academy has been firmly on our best couch co-op games list for some time, and now it's got a sequel on the way. Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School takes the same basic co-op escape room fun and expands on it, moving away from a level-select map screen and towards a fully 3D school campus for players to explore. So long as the puzzles themselves are as fun as the original, it seems like a winner.
Semblance studio Nyamakop is back with new jam called Relooted, a heist game with a unique twist. As in the real world, museums in the West are full of items plundered from African nations under colonialism. Unlike the real world, in Relooted the colonial powers have signed a treaty to return these items to their places of origin, but things aren't going to plan, as many artifacts are finding their way into private collections. It's your job to steal them back. The British Museum is quaking in its boots.
Here are some of the other games that caught our eye:
After Day of the Devs came Devolver. Its Summer Game Fest show was a little more muted than usual, focusing on a single game: Ball x Pit. It's the next game from Kenny Sun, an indie developer who previously made the sleeper hit Mr. Sun's Hatbox. Ball x Pit is being made by a team of more than half a dozen devs, in contrast to Sun's mostly solo prior works. It looks like an interesting mashup of Breakout and base-building mechanics, and there's a demo on Steam available right now.
Then came IOI, the makers of Hitman, who put together a classic E3-style cringefest, full of awkward pauses, ill-paced demos and repetitive trailers. Honestly, as someone who's been watching game company presentations for two decades or so, it was a nice moment of nostalgia.
Away from the marvel of a presenter trying to cope with everything going wrong, the show did have some actual content, with an extended demo of the new James Bond-themed Hitman mission, an announcement that Hitman is coming to iOS and table tops, and a presentation on MindsEye, a game from former GTA producer Leslie Benzies that IOI is publishing.
Saturday, June 7
Monument Valley 3, eggs, Camper Van: Make it Home and niche streams
The Wholesome Direct arrived on Saturday, just in time to soothe that weird hangover we all got after the IOI showcase. The Wholesome Direct is a celebration of all things adorable, quaint, peaceful and sweet, and this year included mainstream news about Monument Valley 3 coming to consoles and PC, following a stint as a Netflix exclusive. There was also a release date announcement for the cozy but twisted shop-management sim Discounty, which is about as spooky as the Wholesome Direct ever gets. There’s something sinister about the small town in Discounty, and while we’re still not sure if it’s demons or just the looming specter of capitalism, we know for sure the game is coming to PC, Switch, PS4, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on August 21.
Meanwhile, Omelet You Cook hit Steam during the showcase as a nice little surprise. It’s a game about making eggs for picky students in a cafeteria, and of course pleasing Principal Clucker (who is a chicken, yes). Simply put, it looks delicious. The final game we want to shout out from this year’s Wholesome Direct is Camper Van: Make it Home, a perfect little crossover of interior design mechanics and slightly miniaturized objects, which makes for a super cute experience. It came out during the showcase, and it’s live now on Steam.
There were dozens of other announcements during the 2025 Wholesome Direct stream, and the entire thing is worth a watch. You can do so at your leisure, ideally cuddled up with a blanket and a nice drink, right here.
A new Xbox handheld, Outer Worlds 2 and Black Ops 7
The last big event of the weekend was Xbox, which had its usual breathless showcase. The major news, especially for a publication like Engadget, was the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X, two new Xbox-focused PC handhelds. Internally, they're a lot like ASUS' ROG Ally handhelds, but the grips have been smoothed out to feel more like an Xbox controller in your hands.
The software experience is also different. The Xbox Ally handhelds run Windows 11, but in Microsoft's version of Steam Big Picture mode there'll be fewer background processes and… just a generally lower overhead compared to regular Windows handhelds. Thankfully, Microsoft isn't locking things down, as it'll be able to access other "popular storefronts," which we're taking to mean Steam and Epic. The Xbox Ally will be available closer to the holidays, but price is a huge question mark: The ROG Ally costs significantly more than the Steam Deck and Switch 2. Is Microsoft going to subsidize these things, or are they going to cost $600-$800 like ASUS' own-brand versions?
Side note: A quick screw you to Microsoft for using Hollow Knight: Silksong to show off the new handheld. We're all starving out here, and this was not helpful. I guess the news that it'll be playable on day one on the handheld at least narrows down the release date to "between now and whenever this thing comes out."
Less of a surprise was Outer Worlds 2, which Microsoft said would be at the show well ahead of time. We got a release date — October 29 — and a deep dive into the game's new systems. It looks like an expanded title compared to the original, with an improved combat system and a more fleshed out set of companions. We hope to have more on what's new real soon.
The One More Thing of the show was a new Call of Duty game, Black Ops 7. Truly, when a game comes out every year is it really worth blowing your one more thing on? If only Microsoft had an Xbox-branded handheld to show off, that would've been a really cool note to end the show!
Here are the other bits and pieces worth reading about from the Xbox show:
Paralives has been in the works for what feels like forever, but you'll be able to play it this year: It enters early access on December 8. The indie take on The Sims looks charming as all hell in its latest trailer, and I can't wait.
Blippo+ has been a great distraction since it launched with Playdate season 2, and we found out Sunday that it'll be coming to more platforms soon — in full color, no less! It'll arrive on PC and Nintendo Switch in fall 2025.
Monday, June 9
Now you're all caught up. There's just one event on Monday, and it's the Black Voices in Gaming showcase. It starts at noon ET, and we've embedded the steam below for your viewing pleasure.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/everything-new-at-summer-game-fest-2025-xbox-handheld-resident-evil-requiem-and-more-185425578.html?src=rss
Sword of the Sea is a game about letting go. Its main mechanic involves surfing across vast desert dunes on a thin blade, slicing through glittering sands and scaling ancient towers on a quest to unearth the secrets of civilizations past. It plays best when you forget about the controls entirely, and just surrender to the slick physics and let your little character flow. With enough exploration, you’ll naturally discover glowing orbs and shining gold gems, and the sands will transform into deep, crystal clear seas with fish swimming through the air, carving wet paths through the dirt. Your character, dressed in flowing robes and a gold mask, rides the orange hills and the blue waves with the same easy athleticism, reacting instantly to every input on the controller.
Charge up a jump and then complete sick tricks with a few quick inputs, or unleash a bubble of sonic energy to smash nearby vases, uncovering bits of currency in the shattered pieces. The protagonist moves in whatever direction you push, stopping immediately when you let go of the analog stick. There are giant chains to grind, a hover ability in some areas, and half pipes generously positioned around the environments. Control prompts pop up when you’re first introduced to an ability, but the text fades quickly and you’re left alone in the desert. There are no waypoints in Sword of the Sea, but the environment tells a clear story, inviting you to solve puzzles in the mysterious temples dotting the landscape. Find glowing orbs on the rooftops and hidden down secret passageways to unlock the buildings’ secrets, opening up new areas.
I played about 20 minutes of Sword of the Sea at Summer Game Fest, but I wanted to surf its dunes for a lot longer. It’s the kind of game that makes the real world fade away, no matter how chaotic or intrusive your immediate surroundings are. It’s built on rhythm and vibes, and it encourages a meditative flow state from its first frames. Learn the controls and then forget them; play with pure intuition and it’ll most likely be the right move.
“The game is about surfing, and it's really about the process of learning to surf and getting comfortable with surfing, and then trying things that are a little bit beyond your abilities, failing, and then figuring it out and actually accomplishing them,” Sword of the Sea creator Matt Nava told Engadget on the SGF show floor. “And in the process, you kind of realize that surfing is all about harnessing the power of something greater than yourself. You’re not paddling — the waves carry you. The zoomed out camera, the little character; in a lot of games, they're right on the character, because the character is the focus. But in this game, it's about how the character is a part of the environment, that is the focus. And I think that's a constant in a lot of the games that we've made.”
Nava is the creative director and co-founder of Giant Squid, the studio behind Abzû and The Pathless. Even with these two successful games under his belt, Nava is still best known as the art director of Journey, thatgamecompany’s pivotal multiplayer experience that hit PlayStation 3 in 2012. Nava has spent the past decade attempting to build explicitly non-Journey-like games with Giant Squid, and while Abzû and The Pathless both have his distinctive visual stamp, they’re the opposite of Journey in many ways. Where Journey was set in a dry, desert landscape, Nava’s follow-up, Abzû, took place in an underwater world. After that, The Pathless was mostly green, rather than dusty orange.
Giant Squid
With Sword of the Sea, Nava let go. He dropped all preconceptions of what he should be making and mentally said fuck it. He finally allowed himself to manifest the game that came naturally to him.
“In this game, it's very much taking on, accepting and proclaiming that this is me,” Nava said. “I did Journey. I'm doing orange again. And I'm going back to the desert because I have way more ideas that we couldn't do in that game … It’s like I’ve been living in my own shadow for a long time in a weird way. It's like, why am I doing that? I should just be who I am and continue to explore the art that is my art.”
Sword of the Sea is a specific and special game, and even though it’s set in an orange desert, it doesn't feel like Journey. The game also includes music by Austin Wintory, the Grammy-nominated composer behind Journey, Abzû and The Pathless. Together, Nava and Wintory form a formidable foundation.
“A lot of video game scores, they just make a music track for the area,” Nava said. “If you're in the town, you hear town music, and then it just repeats. But that's not how it works here. The music advances as your story advances, it reflects where you are on your surfing adventure, what you're learning how, how far your character has gone on this character arc. And so that's where the music of a video game like ours should be.”
As Nava and I chatted, someone sat down to play Sword of the Sea on a nearby screen, and when I glanced up, I saw that they were gliding through an area I didn't find in my runthrough. A giant animal skeleton was half-buried in the sand, bright white vertebrae dotted with gold gems for the player to collect. There are a lot of secrets in Sword of the Sea, Nava assured me. The best way to find them is to just let go and play.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/sword-of-the-sea-is-what-happens-when-matt-nava-strides-back-into-journeys-shadow-233148894.html?src=rss
If you aren't thrilled with what EA has done with The Sims, another alternative is coming soon. The indie passion project Paralives launches in Steam Early Access on December 8.
Paralives has all the hallmarks of the life simulation genre. You can build your character, including physical and personality traits. It lets you make friends, move up in your career, fall in love and start a family (or not!). Design is central, too. You can craft your dream home, move walls and resize that stubby love seat into a full-on couch.
The game uses "innovative build tools that are easy to use but powerful for advanced builders." When designing your living space, you aren't limited to a grid. You can build on curves and customize any object's colors and textures. There's even an in-game measuring tape for those who want to get ultra-precise.
Paralives Studio
The game is the lovechild of Canadian developer Alex Massé, who began the project in 2019. Paralives Studio has now grown to a team of 13 with the sole focus of building "an innovative and fresh life simulation game." It's raised funds exclusively through Patreon. The team's development process is out in the open. You can browse its history and roadmap online, showing the full array of planned features.
Crucially, the young studio says Paralives will never have paid DLC — only free expansions. That's one way to take a shot at The Sims without even mentioning its name. And unlike the glitzy AI-fest inZoi, Paralives emphasizes depth and flexibility over presentation. Its simple and charming art style is a foundation for feeling and connection.
You can see for yourself in the release date trailer below. Grab Paralives on Steam Early Access (PC and Mac) on December 8.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-sims-like-paralives-hits-early-access-in-december-220014257.html?src=rss
Coming off its smash indie hit Spiritfarer, Thunder Lotus Games is taking a more action-heavy approach with its next title. The developer debuted At Fate's End with an announcement trailer during the Xbox Games Showcase at Summer Game Fest 2025, giving us a taste of its captivating visuals and unique combat system.
While Spiritfarer offered a more slow-paced experience filled with charming characters looking for a final peace, At Fate's End has a contrasting action-packed style where you follow the story of Shan, a heiress to a clan that's looking to resolve familial disputes by either fighting or talking it out. The gameplay looks equal parts narrative fantasy and intriguing combat style, since you can use tactical dialogue mid-fight or psychological insight about your family to turn the tide of battle. As you progress through the story, you'll face more of your estranged family members, and you advance your skill tree in different ways depending on whether you defeat or reconcile with them.
Thunder Lotus Games hasn't set a hard release date yet, but At Fate's End is expected to release sometime in 2026. The upcoming title will be available on Xbox, PlayStation, Steam and Epic Games.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/at-fates-end-already-looks-like-the-must-play-indie-game-of-2026-204315182.html?src=rss
Two years after it was first announced, we just got an extended trailer for inXile entertainment's Clockwork Revolution at the Xbox Games Showcase, and it looks kind of incredible — and completely over the top. (A man dubbed "The Knob" pisses his pants a minute and 56 seconds in, and someone else later gets cursed out by an automaton doll).
Clockwork Revolution is a first-person steampunk RPG set in 1895 in a place called Avalon, which is ruled by the time-manipulating Lady Ironwood. As the customizable player-character Morgan Vanette, you'll have to use her own tactics against her to turn back time and undo the damage she's caused. As with all things time travel, the butterfly effect will be at play. The new trailer, which is over 5 minutes long, shows us this will be one with a lot of action and bloodshed (plus some brain-shed), and a good share of ridiculousness too.
We still don't have a release date, though, just the assurance that it's "coming in due time." When it does eventually arrive, Clockwork Revolution will be available on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox PC, Steam and Xbox Cloud. It'll also support Xbox Play Anywhere, and will be available through Xbox Game Pass.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/the-new-trailer-for-clockwork-revolution-is-a-wild-extremely-steampunk-ride-203854022.html?src=rss
Originally announced as "Project Bloom," Game Freak's upcoming action-adventure game made a formal appearance at the Xbox Games Showcase as Beast of Reincarnation. The studio describes the game as a "one-person, one-dog" RPG and it's supposed to be coming out in 2026.
Based on the trailer, the game is set in a post-apocalyptic Japan that's returned to nature due to some kind of beast-born blight. As the main character "Emma the Sealer," you'll travel through the wilderness, engaging in "demanding, technical combat" alongside your dog Koo, all in the hopes of "saving humanity" from the sickness that's plaguing the land.
Game Freak is best known for its work on the Pokémon games, but the developer has made an eclectic collection of other projects between mainline entries, including Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! and more recently, Pandoland. "Project Bloom" was originally supposed to be published by Take-Two's Private Division label, but when the label was sold in 2024, Game Freak's game was taken up by a new publisher called Fictions.
Beast of Reincarnation is coming to PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC in 2026. It'll also be available through Xbox Game Pass at launch.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/beast-of-reincarnation-is-a-one-person-one-dog-rpg-launching-in-2026-192305237.html?src=rss
Xbox fans don't need to wait any longer to play Final Fantasy XVIon their Series X/S. Two years after the action RPG debuted on PS5, it got a surprise release on Xbox's consoles on Sunday. Its sudden arrival was announced during the Xbox Games Showcase as part of Summer Game Fest.
The game's now available via the Xbox PC app as well. Granted, Final Fantasy XVI has been on Steam and the Epic Games store since last September, but some folks might have been waiting for its arrival on Xbox. Buying Final Fantasy XVI once on any Xbox platform means you'll be able to play it across console, PC and cloud with synced progression.
A complete edition that includes both Final Fantasy XVI expansions is available for Xbox. There's a standard edition that includes the base game as well.
The arrival of Final Fantasy XVI on Xbox means that you can now play all the mainline, single-player Final Fantasy games on Microsoft's consoles, save for the Final Fantasy VII remakes. However, Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is coming toXbox this winter — just in time for those new Xbox gaming handhelds.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/final-fantasy-16-suddenly-arrives-on-xbox-series-xs-185542283.html?src=rss
Surely I wasn't the only one caught off guard that this trailer featuring Milo Ventimiglia, a cybernetic butterfly and a tentacly upside-down hell world turned out to be the announcement of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, right? Nevertheless, that just happened at the conclusion of the Xbox Games Showcase, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is officially on the way. Today's teaser comes ahead of an official reveal that's slated for this summer.
The game is set in the year 2035, when "the world is on the brink of chaos, ravaged by conflict and psychological warfare following the narrative events of Black Ops 2 and Black Ops 6." According to Activision, it's "the first-ever consecutive release within the series, set more than 40 years after the events of Black Ops 6." It's all kinds of futuristic, and will see David Mason and crew facing "a manipulative enemy who weaponizes fear above all else."
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 will be available on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Xbox PC, Xbox Cloud, Xbox Play Anywhere, Battle.net, Steam, PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4. Xbox Game Pass subscribers will also get it on launch day.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/heres-our-first-look-at-call-of-duty-black-ops-7-184709483.html?src=rss
The Persona 4 remake is real and its going to be called Persona 4 Revival. Atlus shared a trailer for the game during the Xbox Games Showcase, confirming its upgraded, likely Unreal Engine 5-powered visuals, and that it's coming to Xbox platforms.
The trailer is remarkably short, all you really get are shots of Persona 4's small-town countryside setting, snippets of the game's score, some spooky TVs and the gray-haired player character running around. But if you've played the beloved RPG, you don't need much more to get the gist.
Persona 3 Reload was released in 2024, featuring the Tokyo-set third game in the franchise, but with new graphics powered by Unreal. This next remake seems like its going to continue the trend with the fourth game in the franchise. Notably, without the voice talent of Yuri Lowenthal or Erin Fitzgerald, who both confirmed the existence of the remake and that they wouldn't be in it at the end of May.
Persona 4 Revival is coming to Xbox Series X / S, PC, Xbox Cloud Streaming and PS5. It'll also be available on Xbox Game Pass at launch.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/persona-4-revival-is-real-and-coming-to-ps5-pc-and-xbox-182120544.html?src=rss
Monument Valley 3 is finally coming to more platforms, after being a Netflix exclusive since December. The game will be released on July 22 for PC, Switch, PS4, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Remember, Switch games are playable on Switch 2, so it should also technically be available on Nintendo's new console.
Monument Valley 3 is considered a solid entry in the franchise, with plenty of fresh puzzles that play with perspective. You navigate a character through bizarre mazes and strangely-designed levels.
These games are partially inspired by artists like M.C. Escher, as the pathways don't necessarily follow the laws of physics. It's a whole lot of fun, and sort of plays like a more psychedelic version of the Switch exclusive Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker.
The third entry in the franchise brings in a new gameplay mechanic in the form of a sailboat that freely moves between sections. The vibes are top-tier, with gorgeous art and a great ambient soundtrack. We don't have a price yet, as Monument Valley 3 was free with a Netflix subscription, but Monument Valley 2 ranged from $5 to $8 depending on the platform.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/monument-valley-3-breaks-free-from-netflix-on-july-22-170002131.html?src=rss
Wu-Tang Clan has a new game. At Summer Game Fest 2025, Brass Lion Entertainment has introduced its debut game, Wu-Tang: Rise of the Deceiver. In it, you'll have to fight alongside the group's members to defeat the invading forces of the Deceiver and to save your home of Shaolin. The game is an action RPG with "anime-style fighting and afro-surrealist aesthetic." While you can play the game alone, you can also team up with up to two more friends online, and all of you can customize your fighting styles and your fashion.
According to The Washington Post, the group looked for a studio that can develop a game that can tie in with Ghostface Killah and RZA’s upcoming film, the supernatural thriller Angel of Dust. That's when the members found out that Brass Lion's director of music and culture was American record producer Just Blaze.
Bryna Dabby Smith, Brass Lion's co-founder and CEO, said Wu-Tang loved the concepts their company presented for the game. "The script is in the horror genre, but it really worked from an interactive perspective," the executive told The Post. Brass Lion was co-founded by Manveer Heir (Wolfenstein and Mass Effect 3), Rashad Redic (Fallout 3, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim) and Smith (The Bourne Conspiracy, Sleeping Dogs). Heir previously said that the studio will focus on telling authentic underrepresented stories not just relating to race, but also to age, religion and sexuality.
Wu-Tang: Rise of the Deceiver will feature classic Wu-Tang tunes alongside new material, as overseen by Just Blaze. It doesn't have a release date yet, but you can watch a teaser below and look at some screenshots on its official Steam page.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/wu-tang-clans-new-game-blends-anime-with-afro-surrealism-140048792.html?src=rss
One of the best things about an indie game showcase is that you'll see at least one preview that makes you think "huh?" and "lol!" in equal parts. For the Day of the Devs presentation at Summer Games Fest 2025, Tire Boy definitely fits the bill. Mechanics-wise, it's an open-world action-adventure game, which is pretty standard fare. However, like the name says, you play it all out as a tiny anthropomorphized tire. It looks super goofy, but in a way that might also be super great.
The trio from GameTeam6 who presented the early build of the game explained that they wanted to do some odd things with scale in the world, and that's definitely been accomplished. Most other characters tower over little Tire Boy, whether they're a friendly owl, an enemy frog or just a really big heckin bunny. But there's also some sweetness promised as Tire Boy tries to uncover the secrets of his past and his tire people. It's the sort of wacky combination that can be a lot of fun in practice.
The studio has a ways to go before it's ready to play; they didn't suggest any time frames for a demo or release window, but Tire Boy can be wishlisted on Steam if you want to keep tabs on this quirky project.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/tire-boy-is-a-wacky-open-world-adventure-game-you-can-tread-all-over-000036605.html?src=rss
There's a new puzzle game in town, and this one tackles remote work and corporate data manipulation. Pocket Boss is coming to Steam and the developers just dropped a trailer during the Day of the Devs showcase event, which is part of Summer Game Fest.
Pocket Boss casts players as an employee working remotely, trapped by the whims of an ever-demanding boss. The game is primarily set inside of a chat window, though the puzzle element kicks in when the aforementioned job creator demands changes to data in order to maximize profits and erase competitors.
When that happens, the perspective shifts to a minigame. There looks to be plenty of different designs here. One game involves flinging a competitor's market share off of the screen, while another has players navigate a physical representation of the stock market without crashing. It's like a corporation-soaked take on the WarioWare franchise.
Of course, this is just one game announced during the beefy Day of the Devs stream, and that's just one event of many throughout Summer Game Fest. It's a good time to be someone who likes to read and watch trailers about upcoming video games.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/pocket-boss-turns-corporate-data-manipulation-into-a-puzzle-game-000042457.html?src=rss
Relooted is a heist game about reclaiming African artifacts from the Western countries that stole them, developed by independent South African studio Nyamakop. Relooted is set in a future timeline where Western nations have signed a treaty to return plundered items to their African regions of origin, but things aren't going to plan. Western leaders are instead hiding the artifacts away in private collections, so it's up to a ragtag crew based in Johannesburg, South Africa, to strategize and steal them back.
Relooted is broken into missions, and each one includes a briefing about the artifact, an infiltration planning stage, and the heist. Gameplay is a mix of puzzle and action as you case each building, set up your run, and then execute the plan. Once you grab your target artifact, the security alarms go off and you have a limited amount of time to escape, so thorough preparation is key.
In the Day of the Devs reveal video for Relooted, producer Sithe Ncube cites a wild statistic from a pivotal 2018 report on African cultural heritage, saying, "90 percent of sub-Saharan African culture heritage is in the possession of Western collections. That is millions upon millions of deeply important cultural, spiritual and personal artifacts, including human remains, that aren't in their rightful place."
The locations in Relooted are fictional, but the 70 artifacts you have to steal back are real, and they're all currently in Western and private collections, far from their original homes and owners.
Nyamakop is one of the largest independent games studios in sub-Saharan Africa, with about 30 developers working on Relooted right now. Its previous game, the globular platformer Semblance, was the first African-developed IP to ever come to a Nintendo console, hitting the Switch in 2018. In order to get Semblance on the Switch, Nyamakop co-founder Ben Myres had to bootstrap his way around the world, buying one-way tickets and finding new partners on the fly in a daisy chain of game festival appearances. Here's how Myres explained it to Engadget at E3 2018:
"The entry curve into being an indie game developer in South Africa is like a cliff face. Because you don't have the contacts, the platform holders like Xbox, Sony. You don't have reps that live in your country. The press that matter are all here. There isn't a big enough market locally to sell to, so you have to make works to sell to the West, which means you have to go to Western shows and you have to meet Western press. So basically, if you're not traveling a ton, you're not going to be able to make it."
Nyamakop has grown significantly since 2018, and Relooted is an unabashedly African game built by a majority-POC team, Myres and Ncube said in 2024.
"There is the thing about making games for Africans — we say that a lot," Ncube told GamesIndustry.biz. "We say that should be a thing, we should make games for Africans because we're playing games that were made in the West. But will people even play those games, if you make them? And then if you make games targeting people ... even if you were to make one that's really good, there's no guarantee that you'll have a lot of people playing it. So I think there's some level of confusion, I can say, in terms of unexplored aspects of the African games market."
Relooted is in development for Steam, the Epic Games Store and Xbox Series X/S, and while it doesn't yet have a firm release date, it's available to wishlist.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/rescue-african-artifacts-from-colonizers-museums-in-the-heist-game-relooted-000035161.html?src=rss
Neverway already looks, sounds and feels like it's going to be something special — in a grim, grotesque and hellishly depressed kind of way. (Side note: That could be a nice tagline, no? It's grim! It's grotesque! It's hellishly depressed! It's... Neverway! OK, I'll stop.)
Neverway is a life-sim RPG starring Fiona, a young woman who quits her dead-end job to live on a remote island farm for a while, where she ends up becoming the immortal herald of a dead god. Fiona has to fight through nightmare realms and battle repulsive horrors, while also tending her land and maintaining relationships with townsfolk. She's able to meet and date more than 10 distinct characters, and forming friendship bonds unlocks combat abilities. The game features farming and fishing mechanics, and there's also a crafting system for secondary tools like the hookshot, which supplements Fiona's primary weapon, a sword.
Neverway comes from Coldblood Inc., an independent Vancouver studio founded by Brazilian-Canadian developers Pedro Medeiros and Isadora Sophia. Medeiros is the pixel artist behind Towerfall and Celeste, two stunning indie games, and Sophia is an ex-senior software engineer at Microsoft and the creator of the open-source Murder Engine, which powers Neverway. The game also features music by Disasterpiece, the composer behind Fez and the top-tier horror film It Follows, with sound design by Martin Kvale of NokNok Audio. OuterSloth, the indie game fund established by Among Us creators InnerSloth, is providing financial backing for Neverway, and Coldblood Inc. is self-publishing it.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/bask-in-the-grotesque-pixel-art-beauty-of-neverway-000046814.html?src=rss
While many of us soldier on with the remakes and VR takes on the Resident Evil story, Capcom is prepping the next chapter of the story: Resident Evil Requiem. The sequel was fully revealed as part of Summer Game Fest Live, kicking off a week(ish) of gaming announcements and release dates.
Intercutting the starting moments of REs of the past, Capcom did a fake-out, teasing that we'd have to wait a little longer to see Resident Evil Requiem — it turns out they only meant a 30-minute wait.
The teaser trailer raised more questions than answers, teasing locations from previous games, like Raccoon City — and its ruined police department. It appears the game will follow Grace Ashcroft, as she tries unveil grim mysteries and, er, gets kidnapped. She's the daughter of Alyssa Ashcroft — a Resident Evil character that I do not remember at all.
Capcom confirmed a year ago that veteran director Koshi Nakanishi will lead what is definitely not the ninth chapter of Resident Evil. (If you don't count Code Veronica, who even are you?) Nakanishi was involved in the development of Resident Evil Revelations and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, among other Resident Evil titles.
Resident Evil 9 is set to launch on February 27, 2026, but a demo will be playable in August at Gamescom, so book your tickets for Cologne, Germany.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/resident-evil-requiem-announced-at-summer-game-fest-2025-231136129.html?src=rss
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